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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Akin William" <akinwilliam010@seznam.cz>
Reply-To: akinwilliam001@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 14:40:04 +0100
Subject: Its Very Urgent Pls.
Hello I have a proposal for you. My late client's funds is about to be seize by his bank. I will give you a detail explanation as soon as I hear from you. But in brief I am contacting you to seek your consent to present you as the heir to my demise client estate, to lay claim the money he lodged with his bank before it is declared unserviceable. Another notice was issued to my firm. The sharing ratio will be, fifty percent to me and forty five percent to you, while five percent should settle all expenses or tax paid. All documents that will be used to back up this claims will be processed by me. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see the deal through. I asure you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.
Yours faithfully,
Akin William
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Anti-fraud resources:
